Goodbye Group Rounds: American Idol Hell Week Rolls On

Another night of lasts as Idol wrapped up the final installment of the dreaded #grouprounds forever. The drama was predictable, as it usually is but there were also a few surprises and great moments that reminded me why I still watch this show. Here are my fiveXfiveXfive for tonight.

Five Fist-Bumps:

ReBirth with Manny Torres, Maile Delgado and Christian Eason reminded me why I watch this show. Manny was getting a little carried away with the telling of the drama but he pulled his team together and knocked it out. I remember seeing Malie Delgado during auditions but Christian Eason, a 21-year-old Cheerleading Coach, was a surprise! I wanted them to keep singing for a long time.

The Sistas had the obvious star power of La’Porsha Renae and all her gloriousness but they also showed the nicer, friendlier side of group week. After getting tossed aside by Shelbie Z, Tonie Starr and Marlena Johnson were like oars without a boat until La’Porsha left her already strong team (ReBirth) and helped the Sistas out. This story turned out all warm and fuzzy and left us on a happy note as this was the last group of group rounds ever.

CJ Johnson finally showed up again tonight with a bunch of people who I have never seen before and they were so good! Jess Kellner and Jessica Baker were hot girls who were impressive performers and somehow managed to get no screen time until tonight. I missed their team name but who cares…all but one made it through and I liked him too (Zach Joseph).

Trick or Treat Tribe finally gave us the soul that so many were lacking and with some super-cool bow-tie wearing guy named Marcio Donaldson, also not seen until tonight. Funky cover of Uptown Funk with Kacye Haynes, Jon Klaasen and Kyllee Thomasson (what’s with the double letters) finally brought some jam to the evening. All were safe and I’ve got my eye on this Marcio now.

I have to fist-bump JLo for calling out the Diva in Training Eliz Camacho. Is that really her name? Eliz? It’s not a whole name. Anyway, JLo giving a talk about being nice and getting along with people made me love her even more. That Eliz was straight on my nerves! Gold Star JLo.

Five Questions:

Where is Joshua Wicker? Adam Lasher?

Where is my girl Jordyn Simone?

Is Idol throwing shade at The Voice contestants? I didn’t feel a lot of love for Shelbie Z tonight. The girl is talented but she was rude and Idol made sure we saw it. Same with Sonika Vaid who has an AH-MAZING vocal gift but touches her hair more than a telenovela star. I’ll talk about that more in my next five but I’m curious if the producers aren’t having a little fun exposing these Voice cast-offs.

Why is it that Idol can only tell us the names of two of the four group members? Did they run out of letters? When there are four people on the stage, it would be nice if they could at least tell us all their names. I know time is limited but think how proud you would make their parents.

I love Trent Harmon and I’m glad they made an exception (don’t get me wrong) but really? That hasn’t been possible in all these years. Michael Slezak, I think we’ve found your conspiracy!

Five Face-Slaps:

On the subject of Trent Harmon, I thought it was in poor taste for Keith to say that the reason nobody was singing with him was because nobody could touch his talent. Um, dude got a solo for having Mono and then Keith throws everyone else under the bus.

Sonika Vaid, Stephany Negrete and Andrew Nazarbekian are pretty people and they know it. Anatalia Villaranda is annoying and delusional but sure, she can sing. That drama left me not wanting to see any of them ever again. I won’t discredit any of their vocal talents and I’m sad because Sonika has a killer voice but I don’t think Idol fans are going to like her after all that. (are snaps in a Z formation still a thing?)

I was sad to see Daniel Farmer and Elvie Shayne go. Daniel probably wasn’t as strong vocally but Elvie showed up tonight looking cooler than I remembered. Truth, I had Elvie down as a back-up for Trent but I’m now convinced that Trent is top 12 for sure (conspiracy).

One more thing on Anatalia. You can’t say people just walked off and left you in the hallway if you’re standing with them and don’t follow them when they leave. That’s isn’t how it works.

I don’t like it when Harry tells these kids this is a competition and shames them into being more like Eliz Camacho and less like Joy Dove. I know what he was saying and they do need to grab the spotlight but we (America) needs to like them and want to vote for them. Don’t tell them to be mean.

On that note, I’m happy that my list is still in good shape but I saw a few faces tonight that had me wanting to swap out a few names. We’ll see what happens next week when the inevitable mystery contestants come out of nowhere…wait, that never happens.